No LGBTQ Cover for Israeli Oppression of Palestinians

For several years the Israeli government and organizations allied with it have used Israel’s allegedly more liberal attitudes towards LGBTQs to camouflage its brutal oppression of Palestinians.

This is known as “pink-washing” – using the alleged fair treatment of the LGBTQ community in Israel as cover for, and diversion from, the oppression of another group of people.

Since its independence and mass expulsion of Palestinians in 1948, Israel has steadily stolen more and more land from Palestinians, as illustrated in the above maps. This confinement of Palestinians to ever-smaller portions of the worst land is similar to what was done to Native Americans in the United States, and to blacks in South Africa under the racist white government, a system known as “apartheid.” This is why many leading black South African activists refer to the racist system in Israel versus Palestinians as apartheid.

And Israel’s systemic racism versus Palestinians is not limited to the ongoing land thefts – Palestinians, including children, are routinely arrested and imprisoned without charges and go without trials, in many cases for years. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly cited the Israeli government for treatment of prisoners that are internationally recognized as torture.

People in the United States bear a particular responsibility for what is happening in Israel – Israel has long been by far the #1 recipient of US military aid, and Israel is the United States’ government’s closest ally.

And since the Israeli government has chosen to use the LGBTQ community as a prop to deflect attention from the dispossession of Palestinians, LGBTQs here bear a particular responsibility as well.

Please come to a forum sponsored by the Gay Liberation Network and Chicago Dyke March to discuss pink-washing of apartheid in Israel, and what we can do to oppose it.

2 pm, Saturday, Dec. 9th

Uptown branch of the Chicago Public Library
929 W. Buena Avenue, Chicago
A few blocks north of the “Sheridan” stop on the Red Line el